Enduring Play Season 1 Episode 7: Engineering for Scalable, Sustainable Games
Episode Summary
This week, we speak with accomplished engineering leader Caerie Houchins, who played a critical role in the initial global launch of VALORANT, the global smash tactical shooter from Riot Games. Caerie has now expanded her career from triple-A gaming to become a co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of an independent game studio, Wicked Fox Games, which just successfully funded their first Kickstarter. Caerie walks listeners through insights that are not just useful for game engineers, but for anyone who dream of building video games at global scale and complexity. Hear about wide-ranging topics from game engine technology, crunch culture, and cross-cultural collaboration through the use of artificial intelligence in video game development.
This episode also takes a frank look at one of the things that brought Caerie and host Cheryl Platz together – their layoff. Why are there so many layoffs in the industry? Why is it so hard for indie studios like Caerie’s to get traction? To understand these things, we must look at the root of today’s game industry instability, and that goes back to the gaming gold rush during the pandemic. Learn more about host Cheryl’s take on what has brought the industry to this particular moment in time.
For readers of Cheryl Platz’s book The Game Development Strategy Guide, Season 1 Episode 7 is a particularly great complement to Chapter 6, The Why of Multiplayer; Chapter 9, From Emergence to Prosocial Gaming; Chapter 12, Gaming Technology Platforms; and Chapter 13: The Good and Bad of Game Dev Processes.
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Episode Transcript [PDF]
Featured in this Episode
Caerie Houchins, Chief Technology Officer at Wicked Fox Games
Caerie Houchins is a 25-year veteran of the tech industry who made a very intentional transition into the video game industry as Senior Engineering Manager for the global launch of VALORANT at Riot Games. Caerie is now Chief Technology Officer at indie game startup Wicked Fox Games, who successfully funded their first Kickstarter for the puzzle fighting game Rise of Elements in April 2025. Her journey has been fueled by her love for gaming, from participating in Doom and Quake tournaments in college to video game entrepreneurship today: her hardest challenge yet. Fun fact: Caerie is a Magician Member of the Academy of Magical Arts and can frequently be seen performing impromptu shows at the Magic Castle in Hollywood, CA.
Show Notes
Supporting Links
| VALORANT Backstory | VALORANT (by Riot Games) VALORANT 5 Year Anniversaryv VALORANT Launch Announcementv VALORANT Launch in China (“Breaks records as the most successful PC game released”) |
| Wicked Fox Games | Wicked Fox Games Wicked Fox Games Linktree Wicked Fox on Bluesky Wicked Fox Instagram Wicked Fox on LinkedIn |
| Rise of Elements (from Wicked Fox Games) | Rise of Elements on Steam Rise of Elements Kickstarter |
| Game Development Strategy Guide | Chapter 1: What Makes Us Play (The Motivators of Play – free sample chapter) |
| Narrative Cutscene: The State of the Industry | Game Developer: Industry Layoffs are Seemingly Slowing (July 2025) Acer Blog: Major AAA Flops of 2024 List of best-selling video games, Wikipedia. Retrieved February 5, 2025 Top Selling Title Sales Units, Nintendo, Retrieved Dec 31 2024 |
| Learn More | Scrum Erin Meyers: The Culture Map (Book) : Kindle – Hardcover |
| Caerie’s Socials | Caerie Houchins on LinkedIn Caerie Houchins on BlueSky Caerie Houchins on Instagram Caerie Houchins, Magician |
Episode Outline
| Scene | Time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Intro Cutscene | 2:58 | VALORANT Backstory |
| Level 1 | 4:57 | Introductions |
| Level 2 | 9:25 | Problem Solving for Accelerating Launch |
| Host Commentary | 12:54 | Defining Disruption and Emergence |
| Level 3 | 14:45 | Exploring the motivations of player emergent gameplay |
| Level 4 | 16:06 | Defining and avoiding video game crunch |
| Host Commentary | 20:24 | The importance of task estimation for all disciplines |
| Tutorial Level | 18:50 | Best Practices for planning for all disciplines: Task estimation and scope |
| Bonus Skill Tree Unlock | 24:45 | Quality Assurance |
| Tutorial Level | 26:44 | Motivators of Play and the state of the industry |
| Host Commentary | 24:30 | Caerie’s role at Wicked Fox Games |
| Mode Switch | 31:51 | Indie Game Studio Entrepreneurship |
| Level 5 | 35:27 | Localization and Globalization for game development at scale |
| Level 6 | 38:48 | Artificial Intelligence for video game development |
| Bonus Level | 46:27 | Extracurricular Activities |
| Final Boss Challenge | 48:42 | Video Game Engines and Career Advice |
| Final Podcast Level | 53:27 | Links and Followup |
The Game Development Strategy Guide
Caerie Houchins is featured as Player 10 in Cheryl Platz’s new book, The Game Development Strategy Guide: Crafting Modern Video Games that Thrive. Use code ENDURINGPLAYS1 at RosenfeldMedia.com to get 15% off your order – and all physical orders at Rosenfeld Media receive a free ebook. Podcast Season 1 discount offer expires November 30, 2025.
DISCOUNT CODE
ENDURINGPLAYS1
